Analysis of Integrated Hospitality Marketing Communications Plan

This report provides an in-depth analysis of the marketing communication channels employed by Island Beach Resort, a privately owned SME in the hospitality industry. The report examines various marketing channels, including direct selling, online websites, and banner/contextual advertise...Read More

Unit 33 - Integrated
Hospitality Marketing
Communications

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is a strategic business process through which a business organisation promotes
and advertises of its manufactured goods and services to the consumers in a given market, in an
effort to generate their interest and convert them into making a financial transaction with the
business organisation (Bansal and Rai, 2020). This report evaluates the marketing
communication channels that are used by the privately owned SME called Island Beach Resort
that is located on the Florida Gulf Coast and can only be accessed by its customers using a boat
or a ferry. The resort offers full range services to customers from accommodation to recreational
activities such as tennis, dining, shopping, entertainment etc.
MAIN BODY
Types of Marketing Channels and How they Serve Communication Objectives
There are multiple marketing channels available to Island Beach Resort to make use of
for their promotional and advertisement purposes within the hospitality industries of USA. The
main marketing channels that are used by Island Beach Resort in order to achieve their
marketing and communication objectives effectively are as follows:
Direct Selling: This is a traditional marketing channel that promotes, advertises and sells the
products and services offered by Island Beach Resort to the consumers within the hospitality
industries of USA, from a retail location that is fixed. One of the oldest forms of direct selling
relates to peddling technique. Whereas, the modern direct selling approaches include sales made
using one on one demonstrations, party plan, personal contract arrangements in addition to sales
done through the internet. Direct selling is completely different to the direct marketing approach
as direct selling focuses on individual sales agents of the business such as Island Beach Resort,
reaching and dealing directly with their customers (Ots and Nyilasy, 2017). On the other hand,
direct marketing places focus on business organisation creating and maintaining amicable and
productive bilateral relations with their customers in an effort to increase their brand value,
awareness, customer satisfaction and loyalty metrics.
Direct selling is a effective marketing channel used by Island Beach Resort for their
promotion and advertisement operations because this marketing channel is effectively able to
serve the communication objectives of the Island Beach Resort's marketers, enabling them to
effectively promote and advertise the numerous services that are offered by Island Beach Resort
within the hospitality industries of USA to the consumers. By making use of the direct selling

approach, the marketers of Island Beach Resort are able to effectively communicate to the
consumers within hospitality industries of the various types of accommodations and other
recreational services that Island Beach Resort is able to offer to its customers in an effort to be
able to effectively satisfy their varied needs, requirements and preferences. The individual
approaches within direct selling such as one on one demonstrations, also bolster and enhance the
communication of various services offered by Island Beach Resort to its customers.
Online Websites: This is a digital marketing channel, which functions using the internet that is
used by the marketers of Island Beach Resort involves them promoting and advertising their
offered services within the hospitality industries to their customers through the use of online
digital websites. Doing this, the marketers of Island Beach Resort are able to effectively promote
and advertise the various types of services that are offered by Island Beach Resort to their
customers within the hospitality industries, in an effective manner, at significantly decreased
costs incurred by the marketers, as the online website of Island Beach Resort is able to
effectively communicate to numerous customers, the varying recreational and accommodation
services that are available to them at Island Beach Resort simultaneously, allowing for the
website to possess the potential to effectively communicate and market to a very large size of
customers within the hospitality industries of USA.
Banner & Contextual Advertisements: Island Beach Resort also makes use of another digital
marketing channel through banner advertisements and contextual ads on the internet. Using this
marketing channel, Island Beach Resort is able to promote, advertise and communicate about the
types of recreational and accommodation services provided by the Island Beach Resort to its
customers within the hospitality industries of USA (Bruhn and Schnebelen, 2017). Running
advertisements through banners and contexts etc., allows for the business organisation of Island
Beach Resort to effectively be able to communicate to a significant size of customers within the
consumer markets about the kinds and types of services that Island Beach Resort has to offer to
its customers in their efforts to satisfy the varying and diverse needs and requirements of their
customers. This marketing channel is used in order to increase the customer's interest in the
resort, its operations and services in order for these customers to be converted into making a
financial transaction with the resort.

Critically Evaluating the Integrated Marketing Communications Plan of Island Beach Resort
An integrated marketing communications plan is a strategic business framework that is
able to achieve the marketing and communication objectives of a business organisation through
well coordinated and effective use of various promotional and communication strategies,
communicating channels and marketing content. This section of the report critically evaluates the
communication strategies, marketing content and communication channels that are used by
Island Beach Resort in their integrated marketing communications plan, whose communication
objective is to increase the number of international customers possessed by Island Beach Resort.
The communication strategies used by Island Beach Resort are quite effective in nature
for the operational success of Island Beach Resort. Through direct selling strategy, Island Beach
Resort can make effectively use of various techniques such as peddling, one on one
demonstrations etc., in order to effectively be able to communicate with their clients about the
diverse and distinct services that are effectively provided by the Island Beach Resort in their
efforts to satisfy the needs and requirements of their customers (Damnjanovic, FILIPOVIĆ and
JANICIC, 2016). The biggest issue with direct selling approach is that it requires communication
from a fixed retail location. Use of online website is also an effective communication strategy for
Island Beach Resort as these allow for the marketers of Island Beach Resort to effectively
promote and advertise the services offered by the resort to a very large base of global customers
at significantly decreased costs incurred by the resort. On the other hand, communication
strategy using online websites requires the official website of Island Beach Resort to be
attractive, engaging, interactive and aesthetically pleasing to keep customers interested, while
also being effective and efficient towards its communicational and marketing purposes. This is a
challenge and requires effort from Island Beach Resort.
The communication channels used by Island Beach Resort in their integrated marketing
communications plan are also quite effective and contribute towards the resort achieving its
marketing and communication objectives. Use of broadcast and electronic communicational
channels is immensely effective for the integrated marketing communication plan of Island
Beach Resort as both these channels allow for the resort to communicate their promotional and
marketing content to international customers within hospitality industries. In addition, the
electronic communication channels also allow for Island Beach Resort to communicate their
promotional and advertisement messages to singular customers, group of customers or mass

communicate to a very large section of the customers, showcasing its effectiveness as a
communication channel (Naumovska and Blazeska, 2016). On the other hand, both broadcast
and electronic communication channels do not allow for Island Beach Resort to communicate
messages that are restricted or private in nature. They also do not allow for a marketer or
representative of Island Beach Resort to physically communicate with the customers present
within the hospitality industries in order to provide a more personalised experience to the
customer. This lack of personalisation of the communication messages of Island Beach Resort
can have an impact on the success of its integrated marketing communication plan.
The marketing content that is created by the marketers of Island Beach Resort, with the
intention to be communicated to the global customers within the hospitality industries needs to
be interesting, engaging and interactive in nature in order for it to be able to effectively hold the
interest of the customers long enough for them to take notice of the communication endeavour
and not ignore it (Chauhan, Thapar and Kumar‘Ranjan, 2020). The marketing content is also
required to be aligned with the needs and requirements of Island Beach Resort's target market,
while also being interesting enough to engage a common customer. The way in which marketing
content is presented also needs to be aesthetically pleasing, using big fonts, catchy images and
vibrant colours.
CONCLUSION
Based on the findings of the report, it can effectively be concluded that effectively
marketing channels that facilities the achievement of communication objectives within a
business organisation such as the Island Beach Resort are of immense importance towards its
sustained success within the hospitality industries of USA. This report evaluates the various
types of marketing channels used by Island Beach Resort and how they serve their
communication objectives. The report also critically evaluates the integrated marketing
communications plan used by Island Beach Resort, in relation to the communication strategies,
creative content and channel chosen by the resort.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bansal, K. and Rai, S., 2020. Block-4 Integrated marketing communication. Indira Gandhi
National Open University, New Delhi.
Bruhn, M. and Schnebelen, S., 2017. Integrated marketing communication–from an instrumental
to a customer-centric perspective. European Journal of Marketing.
Chauhan, S.S., Thapar, N. and Kumar‘Ranjan, R., 2020. Effect of Marketing Communications
on the Consumer Decision Making: A Study of Indian Life Insurance
Industry.Sustainable Humanosphere. 16(1). pp.504-515.
Damnjanovic, V., FILIPOVIĆ, V. and JANICIC, R., 2016. The planning process of integrated
marketing communication.International Scientific Days.
Naumovska, L. and Blazeska, D., 2016. Public relation based model of integrated marketing
communications. UTMS Journal of Economics. 7(2). pp.175-186.
Ots, M. and Nyilasy, G., 2017. Just doing it: theorising integrated marketing communications
(IMC) practices.European Journal of Marketing.
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